By May 13, every African country had recorded a case of COVID-19, the last being Lesotho. Africa’s first case was recorded in Egypt on February 14. It therefore took 89 days for the virus to make its journey across the continent.

Eritrea is one of two African countries as at May 17 that could boast of being free from COVID-19 having recorded infections. Virus-free status in this context meaning having attained full recovery of patients previously infected.

The official national declaration of this status was issued on May 15 when the Health Ministry confirmed that the 39th patient had fully recovered after retesting and was duly discharged from the hospital.

As of today, June 25, the country has recorded new cases and what could be described as a spike in cases. From 39 cases, the country now has case load of 144 cases with recoveries still at 39 with 105 active cases and no deaths according to John Hopkins University tallies.

This article focuses on pre-virus arrival measures and other containment decisions implemented by the COVID-19 Task Force – that leads the national response to the pandemic.

COVID-19 response before index case

But the journey to the May 15 status lasted roughly two months (exactly 55 days) from the day an index case was recorded and reported by the ministry. It was on March 21 when an Eritrean national returning from a trip abroad was identified at the airport and tested.

Ten days before March 21, the government of Eritrea, GOE, had admitted that the virus had attained global dimensions and it was just a matter of time before it entered the country. The first official coronavirus directive was issued on March 11.

Contained in that directive was an appeal to citizens with travel plans to postpone on their own volition, that sensitization campaigns were to continue, but the big news for many was that nationals of four countries – China, Italy, Iran and South Korea – arriving in Eritrea were to be quarantined.

Same was the case for all persons with recent travel history through the said countries. They were the most impacted nations at the time.

Between index case and containment dynamics

In between the March 11 statement and the first case, all internal and external travel was banned by the government on March 17. Eritrea will go on to issue stricter guidelines two days after the first confirmed case in a March 23 statement.

Amongst others, gatherings above 10 people were banned and a number of public places including cinemas and nightclubs were shut as were places of worship. Public places allowed to remain opened had to enforce strict physical distancing regulations.

On March 25, commercial flights into and out of the country were suspended. Five days later, the case count had reached 15 according to the health ministry.

April: A total lockdown amid steady case rise

The first move in April was the imposition of a total lockdown. The case count stood at 22, a little over half of the 39 cases that were eventually recorded. Government in the April 1 stateme